Monthly Archives: October 2013

Thirty years ago this month, God used a little book called Power for Living to save me by His grace and deliver me from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son Jesus Christ. In case you didn’t know, Power for Living was a short (130+ page) paperback book that was basically a very long Gospel tract. It went through six editions and numerous printings throughout the 1980s, 90s and into the early 2000s. The book was offered free of charge and shipped (for free) to anyone who requested it. It was first advertised on TV and in print during the late summer/early fall of 1983. A copy of it showed up in our living room. (I later learned it was my mom who ordered it.) I was a college student living at home at the time. A new semester was just getting under way. I was busy. So I ignored it, for a while. (But only for a while!)

The book was unique. It was commissioned by the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation in 1983 to celebrate the Year of the Bible, which was declared in February of that year by Pres. Ronald Reagan. The foundation gave away the book for free to anyone who wanted it. It was advertised and promoted with celebrity endorsements and a marketing campaign that used a powerful and effectual (especially for me) “guess what I’ve got that you haven’t got” approach, to entice folks to order the book. No purchase necessary!

It worked like a charm, because Power for Living had been written and published and promoted to the American public providentially at a time during my young adult life — 20 years old — when I had abandoned my Roman Catholic faith and upbringing, and been essentially living life as a practical atheist and a heathen — a reasonably honest, clean-living, law-abiding heathen, but still a heathen. I was totally self-absorbed, angry (at God) and, therefore, miserable.

That book was a GOD-send.

Now, the truly unique thing about it was this. I mentioned that Power for Living went through six editions plus numerous revisions during its print run. (It is now out of print.) The edition we got, which I read, was the very FIRST edition. And it was the very first (and only) printing of that first edition: Oct. 1983. One of a kind. Why?

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Here’s why. It was published by… AMERICAN VISION.

Every subsequent edition of the book was published by somebody else, under the auspices of the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation.

What else was special about that first edition?

Three of the authors were:

Gary DeMar

David Chilton

Ray Sutton

Can you say sovereign grace? Can you say predestination and providence?!

A Reconstructionist triple-header!

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But there was just one problem. While that first edition, like all subsequent editions, was evangelistic and Gospel-centered in tone — which was what the folks who commissioned the book wanted — it was Calvinistic. It was written self-consciously from a Reformed perspective. It talked extensively about worldview and practical application of the Bible to all of life’s problems and concerns. It stated emphatically that the Bible addresses every area of life, not just a man’s spiritual and eternal needs. And it talked about how (and why) a newly-minted Christian could and should adopt a consistent, biblical worldview and mindset for living out the rest of his life in this world, “by faith,” for Christ and for His kingdom.

Evidently, that’s not the kind of Christianity the folks at Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation had in mind to promote.

So, it was back to the drawing board. Or in this case, back to the keyboard.

The very next month after that first printing and first edition came out, in Nov. 1983, a second edition was quickly put together and published, using a single author, Jamie Buckingham, who completely rewrote the book. The new version was now decidedly Arminian, reflecting hints of the author’s charismatic theological leanings, with a great deal of first-person, personal (from Jamie) material and story-telling, and with none of the practical, covenantal perspectives or Reformed faith applications described above. Whereas the first edition elevated Scripture and the sovereignty of God, the second and all later editions elevated personal salvation and individual spiritual fulfillment above all else, and tended to have a more subjective, “man-centered” tone in their writing.

Here is an example of the God-honoring tone of the first edition, from the final page of the last chapter:

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I wrote about the book a couple of years ago for another blog of mine. You can read that here:

Power for Living went on to be produced and promoted in other languages, in countries such as Germany, Mexico and Japan. You can read an interesting summary of its story here. No doubt, during its nearly 20-year run and now-10-years-and-counting post-publication existence (in the world of used books), numerous people around the world have been saved by God’s grace through reading one or more of the various incarnations of the book. God sovereignly and mysteriously works in people’s hearts and minds however, and through whomever, He will.

All I know is, God, in His marvelous and infinite wisdom, used the very first edition of that unique little book — the one that just so happened to be the ONLY one produced by American Vision and written by Dr. DeMar, Rev. Chilton and Rev. Sutton, among others, to bring me into full fellowship with His Son Jesus and to give me a new heart and mind to love Him and serve Him and trust Him with all things that pertain to life and godliness.

That is why I’m indebted and eternally grateful to Gary DeMar, David Chilton and Ray Sutton, et al, for the very fundamental and indispensable role they played in God’s redemption, rescue and restoration of this lost Roman Catholic boy from Phoenix, who for some 20+ years now has embraced the Reformed Christian faith and the future-oriented, eschatologically hopeful, God’s-law-honoring, unapologetically dominion-oriented and victory-driven, covenantal gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, thank you, Gary, Pastor Chilton, and Rev. Sutton. I just wanted you to know how God used that obscure little ‘Gospel tract’ three decades ago to make a true, biblical Christian out of me.

There’s not a whole lot there yet, but, given enough time — which, as a postmillennialist, I believe we have PLENTY of! — we should have every free book, monograph, tome and screed written in this theological vein here that is worth your reading. Certainly every one that is worth more than what you’re paying for it!

And for all the slanderous, malicious and inaccurate names and terms of derision that could be used and have been used to describe Reconstructionists, you can’t call them greedy. Confident, yes. Optimistic, yes. Strident (sometimes). But not greedy. Not when so much of what they have written for 50 years is available online and, in many cases, for FREE.

You could call some of us cheap. That’s okay. We’re just trying to be good stewards of the Lord’s money!

So, read and be instructed — and encouraged by a “contrarian” (though someday it will be a consensus!) biblical worldview…